Oh no More oneshots
by countbackwardsfrominfinity
Summary: As you can probably tell, this is a place where I leave my oneshot ideas for Hiccstrid. A mix of Modern AU and traditional settings, all character rights go to Cressida Cowell and Dreamworks. Prompts are most welcome. I'm a romance/fluff sap, but I'll give other genres a go if I get a request for it.
1. Cafe AU

At 19 years of age and fresh out of high school, it was her first day on the job during her year off before college and she wanted to make a good impression. That meant she was in town before anybody else and that was how she found herself in the little cafe two blocks down from her office at seven in the morning, ordering a long black with one sugar and a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. Settling down in one of the many empty chairs, Astrid Hofferson, high school graduate and newly employed government worker looked around as she took in her surroundings, fairly typical cafe style, neatly arranged tables and chairs which were simple without being too Spartan. The cash register was positioned next to a glass display cabinet which showcased a variety of tempting pastries and savoury breakfast croissants. The cafe itself was situated right on the corner of the block, which gave her a good view of all the traffic coming and going, even at this early hour. Why the owner had decided to dub the cafe as "The Forge" was beyond her, but it was a cosy little place and she could see herself coming here for lunch every now and then. Behind the counter the owner busied himself with her coffee. He was a big man, sandy beard and moustache giving him a rather fatherly look, and Astrid was mystified and amazed that he could operate the coffee machine with his prosthetic hand. But he did a good job of it and he brought her coffee out promptly, setting it down in front of her and she thanked him with a smile. He inclined his head to her and hobbled his way back to the counter and she noticed his fake leg too.

_"Interesting man to own a cafe." _She mused to herself as she took a sip of her drink, the hot, caffeinated beverage warming her from the inside. A few minutes later a voice called from the kitchen window and her toasted sandwich appeared, followed by a mop of auburn hair as the chef poked his head out to call for someone named Gobber. Astrid had looked up at the noise and she now found her eyes locked on this geeky, but very cute looking young man who was apparently the chef in this establishment. She didn't notice herself staring but she did notice his green eyes, the way his hair fell messily over his forehead, not quite covering his eyes. As he looked around for this Gobber person, he noticed her gaze and he stopped for a moment. Astrid felt herself blushing as he grinned at her, one side of his mouth curling upwards in amusement. She was suddenly very self conscious and she dropped her eyes quickly, gods did she hope she looked decent. Since it was her first day she had taken the time to dress in what she considered appropriate office wear, a simple button up shirt coupled with some dark coloured trousers left her looking decent, but not as if she was trying too hard. But she couldn't decide if she felt over dressed or too exposed as his eyes moved quickly, taking in her appearance. When the owner, who was also apparently the man named Gobber, brought over her sandwich Astrid looked up as she thanked him, and her eyes travelled back to the kitchen window where the young man was now casually leaning on the sill, elbows propped and a dish cloth draped over his shoulder as he stared back at her easily. She blushed again as he winked at her and she dropped her head quickly, trying to focus on her breakfast.

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><p>The second time, as luck would have it, was later that day when her co-workers insisted on taking her out for lunch. And as luck would also have it, they happened to be regulars at The Forge. Astrid looked around as she sat down again, trying to act casual as she searched for any sign of the chef from that morning. The other two females in her office, Rachael and Heather already knew what they wanted to eat, and they strolled up to the counter to place their orders.<p>

"What are you going to get Astrid?" Heather asked as she looked back at their table to where the blonde was sitting.

"Oh. Um..." Astrid dropped her eyes to the menu, trying to decide what it was she would order.

"Any suggestions?" She asked back, and Gobber looked up from the register where he was punching in the other orders.

"Hey Hiccup. Any recommendations for today?" He called into the kitchen, and the chef, Hiccup, appeared, slinging his cloth over his shoulder as he leaned on the door frame to the kitchen.

"Fresh salmon came in from the markets today. That's always good." He said, not noticing how Astrid looked him up and down as he stood there. He was tall, easily a few inches taller than her, his limbs were long and lanky and the apron tied around his waist showed no sign of an excessive gut.

"How's that sound Astrid?" Heather asked again, and Astrid took her eyes off Hiccup as she answered her co-worker.

"Sure. Sounds great." She said lamely, and she could feel her face heating up as Hiccup switched his attention to her, notified by Heathers question.

"You're becoming a regular here." He called, the same easy grin on his face as earlier.

"She just started with us today." Rachael informed him.

"I hope these ladies aren't being too hard on you on your first day." He joked, and all Astrid could do was shake her head. He laughed and she thought she could listen to that sound all day, but there was food cooking in the kitchen and he shrugged off the doorway, heading back to his work station. Gobber input the final order and the register dinged, Rachael and Heather paid for the meals and went back to their table to wait.

"You've been here before?" Rachael asked as she sat down.

"Only once." Astrid said quickly. "I came here for breakfast this morning."

"Oh you should have said so. We would have taken you somewhere else to eat." Heather took a sip from her glass of orange juice as she spoke.

"No it's okay." Astrid hurried to reassure her. "I like it here."

"Yeah, the foods good."

"And the view isn't bad either." Rachelle wiggled her eyebrows at Astrid and she flushed.

"It's okay." She agreed quietly.

"You know he's single." Heather put in casually.

"Who?" Astrid asked, playing dumb.

"Hiccup."

"Oh." Astrid didn't look her co-worker in the eye as she cracked open the lid on her mineral water.

"He's a tough nut to crack though." Rachelle said. "Believe me, we've been trying for months." Astrid didn't feel as though she should say anything, it was only her first day after all, and she didn't want to offend or alienate her co-workers. Their food came out quickly and Gobber set their plates down in front of them, each of the women thanking him in turn. Whatever way he'd cooked it, Astrids salmon was delicious and it disappeared quickly. Rachelle and Heather were slower with their meals, obviously well acquainted with the food here and it gave Astrid time to sit back and relax for the remainder of her lunch break. Movement caught her eye and she looked across to see Hiccup emerging from the kitchen and heading towards their table. Astrid quickly looked back at her two co-workers, pleading silently for help, but they were either too engrossed in their own food or deliberately ignoring her.

"Everything was to your satisfaction?" Hiccup asked as he reached them. Astrid waited for someone else to reply before finally admitting to herself that she was the only one who had actually finished their meal.

"Oh! Yes, thank you, it was delicious."

"You got lucky today. That fish only came in two hours ago, you won't get much fresher." Astrid nodded as she pretended to understand the intricacies of cooking and fresh food. "Can I take your plate?" Hiccup was holding out his hand expectantly and it took Astrid a moment to clear her mind of any daydreams about proposals and rings.

"Thank you." She flushed, not looking him in the eye. Had she been looking however, she would have seen his cheeky grin and the casual wink he gave Rachelle and Heather as they finally looked up from their meals.

"Goddammit. He's fond of you and it's been less than a day." Rachelle sighed, seemingly defeated. She spoke quietly as Hiccup turned away and strode back into the kitchen. "He's never taken _our _plates before."

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to step on any toes." Astrid muttered, but the other two girls were smirking at her.

"Third times the charm I suppose." Rachelle shrugged dramatically as Heather joined in.

"I knew I should have dyed my hair sooner."

"You'll have to let us know how good he is in bed." Rachelle whispered conspiratorially, causing Astrid to blush even harder and fumble over her words.

"Wha-I-what. He...I...you can't be serious." Her fellow workers were trying their best to contain their laughter as they watched her struggle to form a coherent sentence and Astrid looked around in exasperation, catching a glimpse of Hiccup as he worked, head down and all business back in the kitchen and a little voice in the back of her mind whispered.

_"Oh this is going to be a fun year."_


	2. Online friendship AU

Hiccup Haddock stood silently among the crowd of people milling around the arrivals gates at the airport, fidgeting absent-mindedly with the belt loops on his jeans as he bounced up and down on his toes, not sure if he wanted time to go faster or slow down. He tried in vain to flatten his hair again, but the auburn mess on top of his head refused to comply, sticking out at all angles in defiance. At least his shirt didn't have any creases in it. Normally he wouldn't really care about what his hair was doing or whether his shirt was freshly ironed, but today was different. Astrid was going to be walking through that gate soon. A goofy smile appeared on Hiccups face as he thought about the girl he was about to meet in person for the first time. Astrid Hofferson, blonde, blue eyes, beautiful. At least, that was what she looked like in the pictures and video calls they'd had with each other over Skype. And he thought she was beautiful. But a small part of Hiccup still got embarrassed whenever anyone asked him about the girl he was meeting.

_"She's a friend." _Was all he told anyone, but his mother and father knew a little more of course. He and Astrid had befriended each other over the internet, and had progressed from cautious, two or three sentence messages, to Skype chats and eventual video calls that lasted into the very late hours of the night. Astrid had sent him the first message. Hiccup wasn't a very extroverted person, preferring the solace of like-minded people who also enjoyed dragons and mythical creatures on the blogging website he spent so much time perusing.

_"Hi, I like dragons too, and your blog seems pretty cool." _Was the first thing she had said to him in that message. He'd sent her a reply thanking her but insisting that his blog wasn't anything special, and the rest was history. Admittedly Hiccup had been a little apprehensive when he first exchanged Skype contacts. He hadn't had any friends throughout highschool, and now he worked at a library part-time where the quiet environment suited him to a tee, so his socializing skills were virtually non-existent, and there was always that tiny chance that "Astrid" wasn't who she said she was. But his doubts had been dispelled over time as he chatted with her and eventually video called her. Neither of them had amazing quality webcams, but she was certainly not the creepy-old-man-in-his-basement he had quietly feared. And he was glad she couldn't see him blushing the first time she called him cute. Or at least he hoped she hadn't seen. Anyone else looking over their conversations would have seen the casual flirting that went on between them, but Hiccup was blissfully ignorant of it. His parents still held some doubts about this girl, and rightly so in the current digital age were identities could be stolen or forged completely. Regardless, Hiccup trusted his gut instinct and their daily chats had become a bright spark in his life. Then when Astrid had mentioned that she was flying to his state _"because she could"_, he had quietly suggested that he could show her around.

Now here he was, after a few weeks of confirming dates, flights and a lot of excitement. Hiccup glanced up at the board that displayed the arrivals and departures, and his heart rate picked up a little as he saw the flashing word _**landed** _next to Astrid's flight. His hand went up to his hair again, but somewhere between thought and action, his brain switched tack and he just ran his hand through his hair, messing it up even more. The first passengers were coming through the gates and Hiccups excitement increased, he knew what he was looking for but he wasn't sure exactly how to confirm it was Astrid. Still, his eyes kept moving, scanning the crowd for the distinctive braided blonde hair he had become so accustomed to seeing through a bad webcam. Then he spotted her, or at least someone who he thought was her. Hiccup stepped forward, then checked himself and stopped. What if it wasn't her? What if it was someone else who just happened to have blonde hair in a single braid? Just as he was beginning to think he'd got it wrong, the girl turned her head and locked eyes with him. She had blue eyes. Hiccup ticked two out of three boxes in his mind as she cautiously began to make her way towards him. As if of their own accord, Hiccups legs began moving and before he had time to properly process what was happening, she was standing in front of him, looking almost as apprehensive as he felt. He ground his teeth together, trying to think of a tactful way to confirm he was actually standing in front of Astrid, but she beat him to it.

"Hi, I like dragons too, and your blog seems pretty cool." She said, her eyes not leaving his as she waited for him to reply. A grin split Hiccups face as he remembered the line.

"Thanks, but my blog isn't really anything special." Astrids eyes flicked over his face, matching up his features with the ones she knew from their video chats, and slowly she broke into a matching smile to his, and Hiccup was struck by the way she seemed to glow with happiness and in that moment he thought she really was _beautiful_.

"Hiccup?"

"Astrid." Hiccup inclined his head to her, still grinning, and she stepped forward to embrace him, all caution and apprehensiveness forgotten. Hiccup returned her embrace, noticing the pleasant smell of her hair and the feel of her delicate frame. Too soon for his liking, she stepped back, only to hold him at arms length and let her eyes wander over his body. He was _really_ glad he'd ironed his shirt that morning.

"You're a lot taller than I thought you would be." She said, chewing her bottom lip.

"Is that a bad thing?" He asked nervously.

"No." She replied instantly. "It's not." Hiccup mentally let out a breath and tried to think of a return compliment.

"You're a lot prettier than your webcam makes you out to be." He said hurriedly, and she raised her eyebrows at him as his brain caught up with his mouth and he blushed harder than he ever had before.

"I told you you're cute when you blush." She said casually, and he was still stuttering and blushing as she laughed and turned away towards baggage collection, hearing him hurry along to catch up with her.


	3. Chiefing

**I don't really have an excuse for this one. I just wanted a semi-plausible reason to have Hiccup hugging Astrid from behind and resting his head on her shoulder because I have a weakness for that sort of stuff. And it's an alternate version for the beginning of HTTYD 2. One that could have seen Hiccup compete in the dragon races at the start of the movie.**

* * *

><p>Astrid looked up from where she was finishing her final check of Stormflys saddle straps, just in time to see a dark blur shoot across her field of vision and head toward the openness of the sea. Shifting her gaze in the opposite direction that the blur had just gone, she saw Stoick standing in the doorway of the Haddock house, a strange mix of resignation and stubbornness etched in his features. The chief eventually sighed and turned back inside, the door shutting behind him.<p>

"Hiccup." The blonde shield-maiden muttered to herself as she stood up and squinted out across the blue surrounding Berk, the black dot that was her boyfriend and his dragon already disappearing from view. As she hopped up onto Stormflys saddle, Astrid peered at the sun, judging the time. "Just before noon. The races are supposed to start in a few hours." Sighing quietly Astrid nudged Stormfly and the Nadder gave a squawk, opening its wings and lifting off before turning and heading after the night fury.

* * *

><p>It was no easy task following a dragon with Toothless' speed and Hiccups flight ability, but as fast as the two of them were, the telltale wash that they left in the water was an easy path to follow. It stopped and started in random places, evidence that Hiccup had decided to pull up and perform one of those stomach churning spirals that Astrid remembered from her first flight on Toothless, but Stormfly was a keen hunter and picked up the trail soon enough. Eventually they reached a collection of tall rock spires where the trail stopped, their upper halves shrouded by a layer of clouds, and Astrid guided Stormfly higher into the sky in an attempt to find the two missing males. Sure enough, just ahead of them as the Nadder breached the clouds, she spotted the distinctive red tail fin of Toothless, settled on a wider spire than those surrounding it. Stormfly glided in silently but let out a screech of greeting as they approached, and Astrid picked out Hiccup as he sat on the edge of the rock face. Dismounting with practiced ease, Astrid gave Toothless a loving scratch under the chin before he ran off to play with Stormfly and the blonde viking continued towards the lonely figure in front of her.<p>

"Good morning milady." Hiccup said, not turning to look at her. Astrid settled down beside him and immediately picked out a few strands of stray hair to start braiding as she spoke.

"It's probably the afternoon by now." She said as she gave him a kiss on the cheek, and she sensed rather than saw, that Hiccup was staring out at the escarpment in front of them.

"Is it?"

"It was just before noon when I left to come after you."

"You didn't have to follow me."

"Yes I did. I need to keep tabs on you." Braiding Hiccups hair was something she was well accustomed to by now and already the braid was almost a quarter of the way finished.

"My dad seems to be keeping enough tabs on me already." The reluctant bitterness in Hiccups voice made her stop what she was doing and lean over to look at him better.

"Your dad is a good man." Astrid murmured gently, and Hiccup sighed in exasperation.

"I know he is, but- The problem is just- Ugh."

"What?" Astrid was cautious now, she had a feeling that she knew what was bothering Hiccup.

"He's a good man, and he has my best interest at heart. I know, I get it." Hiccup said, suddenly speaking quickly as if he wanted to let everything out at once. "But my problem with that is that my best interests, in his mind, mean chiefly duties and I don't want that. Not yet. I can't be held down by that sort of stuff. He's good at it, and he's not going to die anytime soon, so why can't he just keep on chiefing and let me...do my thing." He sighed again as he finished speaking and Astrid glanced at him to be sure that he was completely done.

"Is chiefing even a real word?" She smiled, and for the first time that day Hiccup turned his head to look at her.

"It sounds like one."

"But _is _it?"

"I don't know. See, this is the sort of thing dad can, and should still do. Decide if words are real or not."

"That doesn't sound like a very chiefly duty." Astrid muttered, now keeping her eyes on Hiccup.

"You'd be surprised." Hiccup told her, but he shuffled backwards and Astrid scooted over to sit in front of him as he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder, protected from her armoured pads by the thick wool of her hood. Astrid let her legs dangle over the edge as she leaned back into her boyfriend. It would normally be a very romantic moment, the two of them sitting and looking out at the vast expanse of the world before them, but Astrid could sense Hiccup was still troubled.

"He gave you the chief talk again." She said, and it wasn't a question.

"That's the third time in as many days." Hiccup complained, each breath he let out ghosting past her ear.

"As his only child you know you have a duty-"

"To inherit the title of chief and protect Berk." Hiccup finished her sentence for her, and she couldn't help but smile a little ruefully. They'd had this conversation several times before. "I know, but I'm only twenty. I've got years until I need to be chief. I'm not trying to escape my duties as chief, well, maybe I am for now, but I'm not putting them off permanently. I still want to explore everything that's out there." As he spoke he jutted out his chin a little further to indicate the endless horizon in front of them.

"I know you do." Astrid said. "And I understand that. And you know that I'll support you in everything you do, from now until you become chief."

"And what about when I am chief?" Hiccup asked.

"Well by then I'll be the chiefs wife and I'll have more than enough duties of my own. And I'm sure you'll be a big strong man, certainly strong enough to take care of your own duties." After being in a relationship with Hiccup for several years, Astrid was well used to the fact that she would be his wife one day, and she also knew what and when to say things to take his mind of his current problems.

"What, I'm not big and strong enough now?" Hiccup asked, and Astrid shifted to look back at him as he waved his arms to encompass himself. "Surely, _this _is more than capable." Astrid smirked to herself as she saw him. Success.

"It is more than capable. But for now, _this._" She copied his earlier gesture, but rubbed her hands up his forearms and biceps as best she could given he was still wearing his flight suit. "Is too busy exploring our world."

"At least you understand me." Hiccup sighed again, and he hugged her. Over his shoulder, Astrid saw Toothless and Stormfly tearing up several trees in whatever passed for playtime with dragons.

"You know I do. And you know that the dragon races are supposed to start soon."

"Oh yeah." Hiccup murmured into her hair, clearly less concerned than he could have been.

"Come on, it'll be a good way to distract yourself. At least this part of your chiefly duties is fun." Hiccup groaned into the top of Astrids head again, but his shoulders slumped a little in resignation and he eventually pushed himself to his feet, helping her up too.

"I suppose we can't let Snotlout win this year either." He said as he looked at her.

"No. No we can't." Astrid smiled. "But I'm not going to let you win either."

"Oh ho, so it's like that is it milady?" Hiccup puffed out his chest and Astrid laughed a little.

"Yes it is." She said over her shoulder, and she whistled once, causing Stormfly to drop her tree trunk and appear at her side in seconds. Still smiling, Astrid climbed into the saddle. "Race you back."

"You're on." Hiccup called,the clicking of his prosthetic signalling the switch to flight mode and Toothless warbled as he leaped into the air for the flight back to Berk.


End file.
